St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-03-05
HOW 1T PROTECTS.
a Farmer Who Does Not Understand
Why lie Has Lost Every Thing Under
the "Fatherly" American System.


farmer 5 in the United States. Com
with ME to the home of one of thes
men. whom know well, and see if it i
q fitting HON for an American citizen
Just west OF the main county roae
and on section twenty-one, township
sixteen, range one. west of the sixth
principal meridian IL Saline County
Kan, stands small frame shanty
The ground plan of this house meas
ures twelve by fourteen feet, The walls
are seven feettthigh. 1t is almost In the
center of an estate of 1920 acres Of
productive corn land, all Of which is
rented to tenants by its owner, a nLn-
resident.
The house was made by mailing
unplancd boards upright from the stills
to the plates. The cracks between
these boards are battcned with lath and
pieces of narrow boards. The walls OF
the building have spread slightly, and
the roof says and consequently leaks a
little during rainy weather. There is
q small one-sash window on the north
ern side of the house, and a smaller
window on the southern side. Several
glasses have been broken out of these
sashcs and the open spaces have been
stuffed with gunny sacks, the ends of
which flap in the wind. There are two
doors One opened to the east, the
other to the west. Both of them are
racked and split, and they are held
together by boards nailed across them.
At one time the inside of the house was
plastered, but long since the plas-
ter has cracked and large pieces
have fallen. The cracks between the
laths are stuffed with rags and pieces
of paper to retain the scanty supply of
heat thrown out by an old battered
and cracked cooking stove, which is
fed with corn cobs. In the northeast
corner of the house stands a ricketv
bedstead, and on it is a thin mattress
and some lumpy cotton bed clothing.
On the floor in another corner is the
children's bed, dirty pile of rags. A
small table stands near the center of
the room. A few cooking utensils hang
from nails which have been driven
into the wall behind the stove. Around
the table stand three chairs and two
empty soap boxes, the latter a gift
from storekeeper anxious to Sc
cure trade. A few ironstone and
yellow ware dishes lie on board
which has been nailed shelf-Eke
on the western wall of the room. Three
small and dirty bottles, which once
contained patent medicine, have been
tied together and hung festoon-like
from nail The walls and ceiling of
this room are black with age, and
smoke and dirt. The undulating floor
is pierced by many knot holes into
which corn cobs have been thrust to
keep out the cold air. The cold air
Sits through this shanty as flour
through sieve. During the winter,
when arctic-like billiards sweep out of
the north, the frail house rocks, and
icy, child-killing draughts sweep
through it. In the summer the small
room is heated as an oven, and the
women, whose work keeps them in
doors, are feverish, their heads ache,
and theysuffer.
Six persons live in this house. They
are very poor. The women and chill
dren are habitually unshod. Their
clothing is scanty in quantity and of the
poorest quality. One-third of the grain
they raise is delivered to the landlord
to pay for the use of the land. No
newspaper enters this home of poverty.
No books are there. Food, bacon and
cornmeal is plentiful. These tenants
toll all day. They sleep all night to
gain toll the next day, and that re-
peated day after day, week after week,
month after month and year after year,
is their life. There is no future before
these people. They have sunk into the
slough of despair, and they lie moodily
and savagely brooding in it. Almost
yearly child is born in the foul shanty.
The weak ones quickly die and are
buried The tough pull through the
heats of summer and the icy blasts of
winter. Seemingly they are indiffer-
ent to heat or cold, to hunger or
thirst. They are strangers to the SIM
plest comforts of life. No possible
change, except widespread famine,
could make their material welfare
worse. The ignorance of the children
is profound. They know nothing,
except to work and to endure.
The father of this family, soldier
during the war of the rebellion, owned
a small farm in Southern Illinois. The
land was not naturally productive, but
for years he and his family lived in
comparative comfort on the results of
their toll. Several years ago the value
of agricultural produce began to de-
crease. Steadily, year after year, the
Il i